


Captain's Port

by levicel



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, F/M, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:54:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23451289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/levicel/pseuds/levicel
Summary: A little look into my Yuan-ti Pureblood ranger's backstory. We're playing as pirates and most of us have evil alignments. This was a fun exercise and I hope you enjoy!Like any evil campaign, we ended up basically adopting a kid... because... reasons?





	Captain's Port

Captain’s Port.

Sshotsa Aszhari never thought she’d return to Captain’s Port. She stood at the back of the Revenant. The wind nipped at her hood, shoving her own hair into her mouth, exposing her face and neck to the blinding sunrise. She spit out another clump of hair. There was no use fighting it. The wind was relentless. And so, with an irritated sigh, she shrugged her hood off and let her hair blow around her in a cloud of wispy black. The strands beating against her face broke up the endless blue that filled her vision. She tried to find peace in that.

The hat she wrung in her hands flapped wildly in the wind, pulling for freedom with each gust . So easily, Sshotsa could imagine a little brown dot sailing away amongst the wispy black. She need only loosen her grip and that would be reality. Her knuckles clenched, grip strong on the ragged thing. 

She came here to let it go and she would. She had been foolish to keep it for this long. Who was she now, keeping trinkets from her past? Her parents would laugh if they could see her. Her entire clan would, really. They’d eat her alive. Coveting some beaten and battered old hat because she what? Missed him? Cared for him? How absolutely human, they’d hiss.

“Urgh!” Sshotsa took the hat in both hands, ready to rip the damn thing into pieces and throw its ashes to the sea. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. 

Why?! She raged in her mind. Why was she broken?! How could she have let him break her? They weren’t even to port yet and Sshotsa’s mind already raced. She thanked the Makers that she was alone with her plight, but she knew that wouldn’t be the case for long. She came up here to do this and it was time to get it over and done with.

Sshotsa let her arm reach out. The wind was stronger and, away from the shielding of her body, the hat began to rip, pieces of tattered leather flicked away in the wind.

She didn’t deserve a reminder of him. Not after what she’d done. 

Another piece of aged leather was taken by the wind.

No one had ever treated her the way he had. No one had ever made her feel that way. Such a bond was dangerous. It made her human, weak. She had no other choice. He had to be destroyed. So she broke his wing, left him to rot as his ship burned, but something in her chest festered now. It tugged and pulled and ached as she watched the hat, his hat, break in the wind.

“What are you doing?” Cornelia asked.

Without thinking, Sshotsa guiltily yanked the hat back to the protection of her cloak and Cornelia glided up to her, looking very much like a cat who found a mouse.

“Don’t be shy. You can tell your dear old friend, Cornelia, everything.”

Sshotsa scoffed. As if they had ever been classified as “friends”.

The half-elf crossed her arms. “Fine. Be boring. You usually are,” she breezed, brushing her long, silver ponytail behind her shoulder. Her hair was smooth and obedient in the ocean air. How long, Sshotsa wondered, had she been at sea?

Noise distracted her from her thoughts. The rest of the ship was awake. Sshotsa could hear the Goliath, Morgoff, bellowing greetings to the crew, his words indistinguishable, no doubt, because he already had a mouth full of food. She could also hear Corrine below deck crying out for some reason which became clear when Jebediah burst out of the hull.

Cornelia rolled her eyes, her nose scrunched as if from the foulest of smells, as the boy began to play make believe just out of sight.

The salty air of the sea turned, and just like that, Sshotsa was transported back in time. The smell of the sea and the mirthful cries of a playful spar made her feel like she was back on that ship. Jebediah fought with some invisible foe with glee and Sshotsa remembered laughing like that. “I came to throw this away,” she confessed.

Cornelia had turned to leave, but, when Sshotsa spoke again, about-faced in a second. The half-elf’s avid interest faded, however, as she looked over the battered hat. “As you should. It’s trash.” She looked down her nose at it. “Why would you keep it?”

Sshotsa sighed, leaning forward on the banister as she looked back out to the sea, the hat still clutched in one hand as the waters became more and more familiar. They would dock soon. “I don’t know.”

Cornelia smirked before feigning innocence. “Oh, I may have some idea.” She rested her elbows on the banister, leaning back to look Sshotsa in the face. Her smirk couldn’t be contained this time. “What’s their name?” 

Sshotsa hissed and back away.

Cornelia laughed haughtily. “Have I hit a soft spot? I didn’t think your kind had any.”

Sshotsa pulled her hood back up, wrapping the material tight around her face and leaving the half-elf to laugh at her back. Her face flushed as the words stung. She was a disgraced Yuan-ti and thanks to this, another moment of weakness, everyone on this ship would know. 

“Miss Sshotsa!” Jebediah called out gleefully, rushing over to hug her legs.

“..Jebediah.” Sshotsa tucked the hat in her cloak, reaching out a clawed hand to pat the boy on the head. His hair was so soft compared to her own, thin wispy strands of black soft as downy feathers. Sshotsa removed the child from her leg, eager to head inside, away from the harsh light of the breaking dawn.

“Wait!” the boy wailed. “Will you play with me?” He couldn’t catch up to the Yuan-ti fast enough to grab her wrist, instead pulling back her cloak to reveal the old hat. Jebidiah’s eyes lit up. He didn’t even care that she ripped her cloak out of his hands. “Can I wear that?! Please?!”

Sshotsa straightened her hood and turned. “No.” 

“How cruel.” Cornelia’s voice cooed at her back. “You’re just going to throw it away. Why not let the boy have some fun?”

Sshotsa hissed as she met Cornelia’s stare. The half-elf had threatened to throw Jebediah off the ship last night when his “fun” kept her awake. 

“No!” Jebediah cried and Cornelia smirked. The damage was done. “Please, don’t throw it away! I will wear it forever-!”

Cornelia cut off his squawking by pinching his face in her hands. “Really, Sshotsa… Who would deny this face?” Her nails dug into the boy’s cheeks ever so slightly. “That’s the problem, my dear boy.” She twisted his head forcefully to face her. “People like her are cold blooded.”

Sshotsa slapped Cornelia’s hands away and Jebidiah happily removed himself from the half-elf’s reach. 

“Here.” Sshotsa handed the battered hat to the boy who grabbed it and gleefully shrieked. She watched as Cornelia rubbed her temples, keeping her stare level with the half-elf. “Happy now?”

“Aye, captain!” Jebediah answered in Cornelia’s stead. 

The hat was too big for him. It kept falling in his eyes. Sshotsa wondered how many years it would take to fit him, if the thing had that much life left in it.

“Captain’s Port!,” cried a voice from the crow’s nest.

“Look alive, people,” Ebthos bellowed. “Anchors at the ready!”

They were here.

She was back.


End file.
